Drawing, painting, gluing… According to a recent American study, unleashing your artistic creativity would reduce cortisol levels. Cortisol, késako? It is simply the stress hormone:the higher its level in a person, the more stressed they are. To highlight this result, the researchers called on 39 adults between the ages of 18 and 59 who lent themselves to 45 minutes of artistic creation. Their cortisol levels were measured before and after the experiment. In total, 75% of participants saw their cortisol levels drop, which reveals that the stress level was much lower. Small downside:in the remaining 25%, the opposite effect occurred and they saw their cortisol levels rise. However, for Dr. Girija Kamal, responsible for art therapies, this does not mean that art is responsible for this rise in stress:"This mechanism could be linked to the excitement generated by the activity".
Good to know:cortisol is still necessary for the proper functioning of the body, and varies throughout the day (its level is higher in the morning to give us energy for example). Further studies are planned to take the research even further and target other markers of stress. We can't wait to see if the results are confirmed. In the meantime, to our pencils/brushes/scissors!
